Widow cleared of murder may sue prosecutor

April 19, 2008|By Tony Perry Los Angeles Times

SAN DIEGO — After 876 days in jail for a murder that prosecutors now say did not happen, a onetime Wellington resident knew what she wanted: a fancy coffee drink at Starbucks, followed by a coconut-shrimp dinner at Bully's restaurant.

In the next few days, Cynthia Sommer, 34, plans to go shopping and reunite with her three sons in Michigan - ages 8, 12 and 13 - and her 16-year-old daughter in Florida.

Later, she said at a news conference Friday, she will decide how to pay her legal bills and whether to sue the district attorney for prosecuting her and overlooking evidence that ultimately cleared her of poisoning her U.S. Marine husband.

On Thursday, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis moved to dismiss murder charges against Sommer, telling reporters at a hastily called news conference that overlooked evidence and new scientific scrutiny had poked holes in the prosecution's assertion that she used arsenic to kill her husband, Sgt. Todd Sommer.

Within hours of Dumanis' startling announcement, Sommer was free and surrounded by friends and family.

"I never lost any hope, faith or anything," she said Friday. "You can never give up if you're innocent."

In announcing the dismissal of the charges, Dumanis said, "Justice has been done."

But Sommer said, "I don't think Bonnie Dumanis would agree if she was in jail wrongfully accused of murdering her husband."

Sommer was extradited from Palm Beach County in March 2006 to face trial in San Diego. In November 2007, a jury convicted her of first-degree murder, but the trial judge overturned the verdict, ruling that the description of her "lifestyle" presented by prosecutors was so inflammatory that it deprived Sommer of a fair trial. She had been scheduled to be sentenced to life in prison.

Prosecutors had said Sommer killed her husband to collect on his $250,000 life insurance policy and begin a new life complete with surgically augmented breasts, drinking, partying and frequent sex.

While prosecutors prepared for a second trial, Sommer remained in jail.

In response to a discovery motion by Allen Bloom, Sommer's new defense attorney, prosecutors gathered all the tissue samples that had been taken from her husband's body, including some that were not tested before the first trial.

When prosecutors had the new samples tested, experts could not find arsenic, creating what Dumanis called "reasonable doubt" that Sommer's husband had died of arsenic poisoning.